The Weatherman

Wow…I think we officially have a blizzard…winds are whipping and snow is falling very quickly.  Footsteps in the snow are covered up 5 minutes later and drifts are forming.  The roads are getting tougher to navigate as the snow thickens up.  Photos and video to come later.

Update 11:40pm: We are up to 7 inches for this storm, giving us over a foot on the ground.  Temps still in the mid 20s.  Drifts are starting to form in certain areas.  It is supposed to warm up to freezing or little higher tomorrow so this stuff will pack down pretty quick (since it is so dry).

Photo at SW 35th and SW Webster at around 10:30pm.

The front of our house during the storm.

Here is a video from earlier tonight taken from our doorstep.

Update 12:40am: Went out on a recon at 12:20am…snow has backed off quite a bit and the wind is not as strong.  Drifts are building up – 2 to 3 feet in places.  SW 35th at SW Webster looks decent (looks recently plowed)…covered in packed snow but tires will probably reach some pavement.

New snow staying at 7 inches for now.  Here are additional photos.

Front of house.

Some of the drifts I was talking about.

My favorite newest blog is maintained by Cliff Mass at http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/.  He’s written a book on Northwest weather and provides excellent insight into the recent storms and cold weather.

We have our coldest weather this morning since moving up…our place has gotten down to 18 degrees.  SeaTac is recording a low 15 (14 is their record on this date).  It’s crystal clear out…except over the Puget Sound where the cold air hitting the warm water has created a band of clouds.

This is the calm before the storm.  4 to 8 inches of snow are expected tonight.  Jan and Mike are driving up from Eugene right now…not sure they know it but they will hit falling snow in Portland where the storm is already hitting.

Here are some shots from today.

Looking west.

Looking north.

Tonight, while walking around the neighborhood, I got passed by two snowmobiles…pretty interesting to see those cruising around at night.

9:20pm Update: 20 degrees and we just hot tubbed!  I’m feeling relaxed now.

8:00pm Update: It’s already 21 degrees…so this should be our coldest night as our low has not gone below 21 on previous days.

So in the followup to our 6.5 inches of snow…Today was cold, slippery and partly cloudy.  Steph took the van (has AWD) to work with no problems.  I hopped in the car at 7:30 with the boys in order to drive them to daycare.  It only took me 50 (yes, fifty) minutes to get out of our icy driveway with a 2WD car.  Yikes, what a nightmare.  I almost took out our garage door and crashed into our retaining wall.

After wearing down the Acura’s tires, I decided to take the car into Courtesy Tire for new tires, oil change, and new brakes…it was due.  BTW, tires for an Acura TSX are pretty expensive due to the size.

Following is a picture on West Seattle Blog of the tractor our neighbor uses to clear everyone’s sidewalks…here he is cleaning the parking lot at Thriftway (our local grocery store).

My other neighbor was cleaning his sidewalks with his sit on top lawn mower…seriously, he was mowing the snow.  It cut the snow down to about an inch but couldn’t clear it completely.

While I was at True Value Hardware in the junction, I happen to get the last 5lb bag of rock salt…I will use this sparingly.

Upcoming tomorrow night is a huge storm…the eastside won’t get much snow but they are expecting sustained 50 to 60 mph winds with gusts to 90mph.  Our area is expecting wind gusts to 30mph with 4 to 8 inches of snow.  What fun!

We are up to 6.5 inches with another round coming in.

Here is a movie – most of it is from Thanksgiving but some from today’s snow.

I took Lou for a walk – kind of funny watching a basset jump through the snow but he seemed to like it.  Our neighbor was out on his tractor plowing the sidewalks…he didn’t have to do mine as I’ve kept shovelled.

For kids and adults!  We’ve had 6 inches this morning (most we’ve had in West Seattle in our short 2.5 years here).  We’ve watched a kid on an ATV cruise around the neighborhood and a snowmobile was zipping around.  Here are some photos.

Looking down the street.

Our snowy home.

Looking out from our porch.

Another shot from the porch.

The kids played in the snow this morning, then Zach and I went to the store.  Not many people driving around today – lots of people walking to and from the store.

kirotv.com was showing lots of West Seattle footage including multiple stuck buses, sliding buses, and sliding cars.  For more snow pictures check out www.westseattleblog.com.

I’ll post some videos later.